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European LCS roundtable: How will the lane swap changes affect the game?

As the European League Championship Series playoffs are upon us, so are the lane swap changes brought on by patch 6.15.

Slingshot’s Alexandre “DrPuppet” Weber had the opportunity to collect some opinions from notable people in the European LCS scene to ask how the changes might affect the game going forward:

Jesper ”Zven” Svenningsen, AD Carry for G2: “I don’t think they are good for the game, but good for the viewers. It’s a heavy change, and I think it is going to make diversity even worse. We will never see champions that are bad in laning phase without taking a risk in the laning phase. So it might kill off some champions. Anyways, the game is almost the same as before after the five-minute mark.”

Devin “PiraTechnics” Younge, European LCS caster: “So I don’t delve so far onto patch notes until they become relevant for LCS, so I haven’t given it a full read to it yet. I think it will make early game a lot more interesting, but there may be a lot of backpedaling and undoing depending on how much it actually changes things. Like seeing how it drastically changes things rather than just seeing lane swaps or no lane swaps. So we will have to wait out until we see it in competitive.”

Andrew “Vedius” Day, European LCS caster: “The lane swap changes likely won’t affect the meta drastically. We’ll just see more 1-v-1s and 2-v-2s, but a lot of the champions that currently exist often can hold their own and are unlikely to give away any insurmountable advantage in the first five minutes of the game. We might see more aggressive champions in the bot lane and more global pressure style from the top. Mid and jungle will likely be the same.”

Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi, Splyce head coach: “I think the old Level 1 system was very interesting since every strategy had its own counter, so it went around in a circle. The Level 1 was kind of a poker game, and it went on in a circle and a hand beats a hand. So it was interesting to study opponents and find a way to surprise and outplay them. I think Fnatic was the best team at reading and playing the Level 1, maybe it comes because Deilor was a Poker Player. (Laughs). I think that aspect of the game will disappear, and I think that is a bit of a disappointment. In my regard, I don’t care how the game looks like, I just take it and learn it. It is what it is, so I don’t have a better option.”

Federico “Fr3deric” Lizondo, ex- Jungler for Giants Gaming: “Lane swaps are over in my opinion. The turret first blood is really important so it is not worth risking a lane swap due to the fortification. So with that the most important thing for me is to counter pick top lane and take the best bot lane possible in the first rotation. If the bot lane is losing due to the matchup, the jungler should help them push out and lane swap at Minute 5 or 6 due to the fortification duration.”